Ho Ho Ho

Why is it that, when you are completely physically exhausted, your brain refuses to shut down and let you go to sleep? Is it just me?

A day spent up and down ladders, moving large heavy boxes. A day of construction, organising, tidying, moving, considering, discussing, trying, replacing, tweaking, finishing off. A day spent wondering where the hell we put it all last year, and how it seems to expand every time we bring it all down from the loft.

Yes, we are now living in Santa’s grotto.

Admittedly, this year, I’m happier than usual that the tree and assorted decorations are going up. If nothing else because Louise loves this time of year so much, and it was nice to see her with that child-like smile on her face as we opened box after box of ornaments and sparkling things. Her glee at ‘discovering’ a forgotten item kept me going through the day, until we both collapsed on the sofa wondering why it takes so long to decorate our little house.

This morning the empty boxes have been returned to the loft and some sanity has been restored to the house – it was getting to be a bit too much of an obstacle course for my liking. Just making a cup of coffee required you to negotiate the “wall of tinsel”, slalom round the intricate course of “fallen baubles”, before the last, death-defying, tightrope walk along the fairy lights.